Confessions of a museum curator
Curator of travelling exhibition wants to show ancient Greek culture to the world
He was inspired to be a museum curator by his father, the founder of Kotsanas Museum of Ancient Greek Technology in Greece.
Mr Panagiotis Kotsanas has curated more than 500 museum exhibits in the past eight years.
As the exhibition director of museum, the 25-year-old from Greece was in Singapore recently with his father to launch their travelling exhibition - titled The Inventions of Ancient Greece: Origins of Our Modern Technology - at the Science Centre Singapore.
The exhibition is the first of its kind in Singapore and will run till March 17 at The Annexe, Science Centre Singapore.
The display features over 40 inventions that laid the foundation for modern engineering and technology.
The inventions span a multitude of disciplines from automation to programming, timekeeping, astronomy, and music, among others, and they answer the modern concerns of the Ancient Greeks.
Mr Kotsanas told The New Paper: "Some of my favourites are the Antikythera calculating mechanism - the first mechanical computer ever made - and the automatic servant of Philon, the first humanoid robot."
The exhibition has travelled to countries such as Thailand, South Korea, Germany, Switzerland and France.
Mr Kotsanas said: "I love Ancient Greek culture and want to tell the world all the amazing things about it that they don't know."
However, as great as his job is, he explained that being a curator has its challenges.
A lot of patience is required as extensive research needs to be conducted for months.
As the head of the educational department at the museum, Mr Kotsanas also mentioned the importance of having sufficient background knowledge.
ENGINEERING
He studied at the Department of Chemical Engineering in the National Technical University of Athens. "You need to understand the basic principles of engineering and history to do the job," he said.
Altogether, Mr Kotsanas and his father have set up the Kotsanas Museum of Ancient Greek Technology in Athens and Katakolo, the Museum of Ancient Greek Musical Instruments and Toys in Athens and the Archimedes' Museum in Ancient Olympia.
His most memorable moment was during the opening of the Archimedes' Museum in Ancient Olympia in August 2014.
Mr Kotsanas said: "It was a proud and emotional moment for me because the museum is located at the place where all the history came from."
He stressed that it means a lot for him to prove that the technology of the Ancient Greeks, just before the end of the Ancient Greek world, was extremely similar to the beginning of the current modern technology.
"I just want to send a message to the world about the Ancient Greek culture and show its legacy."
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